Computing systems are growing rapidly in size and complexity. Many businesses have data centers consisting of a multitude of servers. In such an environment servers will have different configurations of hardware and software, including operating systems.
One of the problems in managing a data center is moving an Operating System, related applications and data between servers to provide optimal use of the servers. Moving an Operating System, related applications and data from a source server to a target server traditionally requires that all software on the source server be reinstalled on the target server. This is often not trivial. The source server may have legacy applications that cannot be reinstalled. The source server and target server may also differ in device drivers and connections to peripherals. Typically the individual performing the transfer must have direct contact with the source and target machines to insert media and enter commands.